women | Hold the Glamour

October 5, 2013

What makes a fashion model, a model?

What does a ‘fashion model’ mean to you? What thoughts come to your head? How would you describe one and what separates one from another in your opinion? What age is too young and what age is too old? Please… talk to me!

This week I have had two beautiful yet interesting women called ‘models’ come to my attention in the news and for obvious reasons I was riveted. I wanted to know more.

The first was 85 year-old Daphne Selfe from the UK. The Today Show called her ‘the oldest working supermodel in the world’. I was intrigued. I watched as this beautiful and confident woman in her old age spoke about her life and career which has spanned over 60 years.

What a remarkable woman and talk about the career she has had — who can speak of that? She still looks amazing and makes an effort to look her best with her long greying hair. I simply love the lines on her lived-in face. What a fabulous story it tells and reveals. Like I said… I am intrigued.

http://www.models1.co.uk/details.aspx?modelid=1601&subID=7773&mainsubid=7773&sexid=2

The second woman I knew nothing about until two days ago was Nicole Trunfio. Not only is Nicole a sexy and beautiful Aussie chick — she is so hot right now and has been for ages. What a fabulous career she has had thus far. Nicole has this classic, curvy, sexy beauty that makes you feel appreciative of being a woman. OMG! I love her look.

http://www.nicoletrunfio.net

It really is incredible how many successful people there are in the world. There are so many that standout in the modeling/fashion industry, that I am still meeting so many of them along my amazing life and career journey. It is phenomenal and it still blows my mind.

Tomorrow, I’m hopping on a Qantas flight bound for New York. I have to get packing so stay tuned for more ‘fashion model fun’!

August 15, 2012

Goodbye Olympics, hello double standards

What do we do now that the London 2012 Olympics are finished? What are you doing? Did you watch any or all of it? Can you wait for the next games held in Rio? Are you a sports junkie? Are you over it?

In our household, we had the games on most of the time over the 16 day event. Even Mila and Levi became educated in the sports of water polo, volleyball, basketball, gymnastics and diving. We are not ‘quiet’ spectators and if we weren’t going for Australia, we were behind the USA, Croatia, Serbia or Montenegro (splintered pieces from the former Yugoslavia). It was a treat for them to have the TV on for a period longer than one of their ‘programs’. After a while, they forgot about it and the novelty wore off – thank goodness!

One of the sports we didn’t get to see unfortunately were the female weightlifters. There was a lot of talk around the Olympics regarding Holley Mangold for team USA, and Zoe Smith from Great Britain. Lots of people talking about how they are perceived by men and in media for being “big girls”… Really now?! Are you kidding me?!

Getty Images – A world-class Holley Mangold doing her thing

Camera Press – James Veysey (Zoe Smith showing us some of her red carpet curves)

I was firstly amazed at how brilliant these two young athletes are and what does it have to do with their weight, clothing size, body shape? They come across as grounded, funny, quick-witted, feminine women who love their sport and are very good at it. What does it have to do with men (predominately) sitting at home eating potato chips and what they think a world-class athlete should be and should look like? Who made up the rules by the way?

I have done a little research and am horrified that not only do some men feel this way however, there are some young women who do also. What is with that? How far have we come in the weight debate, size debate, sex debate? Now, we are talking about athletes and their skills and accomplishments. Who gives anyone the right to judge and more importantly, publicly comment on a world-class athletes size and weight rather than their ability and ranking?

Do we dissect and discuss a male weightlifters size, weight, shape or appearance (or any world-class athlete for that matter)? Clearly not! So why is it hot news when two chicks get on stage and lift some metal? Clearly, it’s double standards.

What are your thoughts and sentiments?

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July 18, 2012

Women of the world

I arrived in Minneapolis 11.15pm local time (that’s 12.15am EST). I was picked up from the airport and taken to my hotel along with a straight-sized model Lana that I worked with earlier this year and with another client. We were busy sleeping on the plane so we caught-up once we were in the car and on our way.

Our hotel room was nice and clean. I unpacked, got my work bag ready and fell in to the big, comfortable bed by 12.30am local time. When the alarm sounded at 7am, I was pretty sure I hadn’t moved all night.

On the ground floor of the hotel, I meet the four other models I was working with over the next few days at Starbucks – a very necessary start to our day. I knew Lana already and my dear and stunning friend Barbara Brickner was the other full-figured model on the shoot. The other two lovely ladies were straight-sized.

Minneapolis – Our shoot on location

We hit it off right away, discussing family (husbands & children), work, travel, schooling, fashion and of course the juggling of it all. It was a common thread amongst all five of us and we had a lot in common. We didn’t stop talking, asking questions and sharing advice whilst the camera clicked away. It was so refreshing to be amongst women of the world who had come from all four corners and traveled it well both personally and professionally.

Minneapolis – Behind the scenes

That evening, our client took us out for a delicious Japanese dinner. We all loved it and ended up in bed a little later than we had anticipated. See what happens when women get together and spontaneously have glamourous fun over dinner and a glass of wine?! It was a great way to start the shoot and it gave us the opportunity to get to know each other, including the client and producer.

Minneapolis – The stunning Barbara Brickner laying one on me!

One of the models had ‘googled’ me since it was my first time working with her, this client and the other four models. They other’s have been regularly working together over the last year or two. I thought it a little odd at first. I can’t say I’ve ‘googled’ another model prior to a shoot before – perhaps it has become more of a common thing these days. Well, she knew a bit about me before we started shooting anyway – it started the conversation rolling amongst the crew.

One of the questions that was asked of me was, what editorial was I most proud of or that I liked the most that I have done in my career. There were two that came to mind – one was the jet-setting feature I did in the Australian Cosmopolitan magazine about five years ago and the other was in the Australian Women’s Weekly. I must say, the women’s magazines in Australia really support curvy, beautiful women of all shapes, sizes and ages. This is wonderful, exciting and rewarding at the same time.

Wouldn’t it be fabulous and fantastic to have more editorials for women who are curvy and of all shapes, size, colour and age represented by more, if not all magazines around the world – a representation of WOMAN not just young, slim and pretty?

What are your thoughts?